PRACTICAL WISDOM (PHRONÄ’SIS) AND HERMENEUTICAL POLITICS

Abstract

This essay focuses on the implications of Aristotle’s concept of practical wisdom (phronēsis) for ethical and political life in contemporary societies – especially pluralist and divided societies.1 The argument starts with a brief reconstruction of this well-known Aristotelian concept (section 1) and then moves to its critical appropriation by two prominent contemporary thinkers. In section 2 it is argued that Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics is deeply influenced by the concept of practical wisdom (phronēsis), and that this influence has implications for the way he interprets contemporary politics – especially a scientifically-steered politics that follows the recipe of a scientific method rather than to seek a more practically wise concept of truth. Gadamer’s work provides a fitting departure point for the unique political theory of Hannah Arendt (section 3) – especially the distinction she makes between an empirical and hermeneutical politics. It is additionally argued that this latter concept of Arendt, also being influenced by the Aristotelian tradition of phronēsis, is taken further in her study of truth and politics and its implications for concepts such as freedom, action, history, and language.